[We develop a model with incomplete markets and heterogeneous agents that generates a large equity premium, while simultaneously matching stock market participation and individual asset holdings. The high risk-premium is driven by incomplete risk sharing among stockholders, which results from the combination of aggregate uncertainty, borrowing constraints, and a (realistically) calibrated life-cycle earnings profile subject to idiosyncratic shocks. We show that it is challenging to simultaneously match asset pricing moments and individual portfolio decisions, while limited participation has a negligible impact on the risk-premium, contrary to the results of models where it is imposed exogenously.]

[We study the simultaneous impact of fiscal policy decisions on macroeconomic activity, wealth distribution, and asset prices. We consider a general equilibrium, overlapping generations model with incomplete markets and heterogeneous agents, where government debt and capital are imperfect substitutes. Increases in public debt lead to significant increases in the riskless rate and to a reduction in the equity premium, while higher capital income tax rates lead to a higher equity premium. The crowding-out effects (on capital and output) are much higher than in models where government debt and capital are perfect substitutes, which thus ignore households' portfolio reallocation decisions.]

This paper measures the utility gains from exploiting short-run predictability in the volatility of stock returns in a dynamic model in the the presence of transaction costs, short-selling constraints and estimation risk. We find that utility gains are quite significant, both ex ante and out-of-sample.

This article solves a realistically calibrated life cycle model of consumption and portfolio choice with non-tradable labor income and borrowing constraints. Since labor income substitutes for riskless asset holdings, the optimal share invested in equities is roughly decreasing over life. We compute a measure of the importance of human capital for investment behavior. We find that ignoring labor income generates large utility costs, while the cost of ignoring only its risk is an order of magnitude smaller, except when we allow for a disastrous labor income shock. Moreover, we study the implications of introducing endogenous borrowing constraints in this incomplete-markets setting.

In the U.S., student debt is currently the second largest component of consumer debt. Households are required to repay these loans early in their lifecycle, when marginal utility is particularly high. We study alternative contracts that offer partial or full payment deferral until later in life. We calibrate an economy with the current contracts, and then solve for counterfactual equilibria. The alternative contracts yield large welfare gains, which are robust to assumptions about the behavior of the lenders and borrower preferences. The gains are similar to those that could come from the debt relief program currently being considered in the U.S., but without its adverse fiscal implications.

We document significant negative effects of exposure to increased automation at work on household wealth accumulation. Beyond the income and savings channels, we uncover a novel mechanism contributing to the negative wealth effects of automation that arises through the endogenous optimal portfolio decisions of households. We show that households rebalance their financial wealth away from the stock market in response to increased human capital risk induced by pervasive automation, thereby attaining lower wealth levels and relative positions in the wealth distribution. Our evidence suggests that the portfolio channel amplifies the inequality-enhancing effects of increased automation.

1 We solve a model with incomplete markets and heterogeneous agents that generates a large equity premium, while simultaneously matching stock market participation and indi-vidual asset holdings. The high risk premium is driven by incomplete risk sharing among stockholders, which results from the combination of aggregate uncertainty, borrowing con-straints and a (realistically) calibrated life-cycle earnings profile subject to idiosyncratic shocks. We show that it is challenging to simultaneously match asset pricing moments and individual portfolio decisions, while limited participation has a negligible impact on the risk premium, contrary to the results of models where it is imposed exogenously.

Over the last couple of decades unprecedented increases in life expectancy have raised important concerns for retirement savings. We solve a life-cycle model with longevity risk, which can be hedged through endogenous saving and retirement decisions. We investigate the benefits of financial assets designed to hedge the shocks to survival probabilities. When longevity risk is calibrated to match forward-looking projections, those benefits are substantial. This lends support to the idea that such hedging should be pursued by defined benefit pension plans on behalf of their beneficiaries. Finally, we draw implications for optimal security design.

We present and discuss the papers in this special issue. We use the themes that these papers study to illustrate interesting new directions that are being pursued in the household finance literature and highlight open questions on which more work is needed.

We study the simultaneous impact of fiscal policy decisions on macroeconomic activity, wealth distribution, and asset prices. We consider a general equilibrium, overlapping generations model with incomplete markets and heterogeneous agents, where government debt and capital are imperfect substitutes. Increases in public debt lead to significant increases in the riskless rate and to a reduction in the equity premium, while higher capital income tax rates lead to a higher equity premium. The crowding-out effects (on capital and output) are much higher than in models where government debt and capital are perfect substitutes, which thus ignore households' portfolio reallocation decisions. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: [email protected]., Oxford University Press.